The Vocation of Mothers and of All Women

Today is Mother's Day. We celebrate the woman God destined to bring each of us, men and women, into the world. Each of us is a word of God, as Jesus is the Word of God.  As I reflected on my mother and who she was for my siblings and me, the following came to me in a dialogical prayer with my mom:

"Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Thank you for mothering me to this very day."

"You are welcome, Dort. And thank you for being a spiritual, caring and loving mother to so many children, big and small, young and old.  In your work as counselor you mothered many!  Thank you!"

"You are welcome, Mom.  Mom you taught us to serve others, to help others, to care, to provide for other people's needs. Mom, you gave us strength, love, faith and confidence!  Thank you!"

"You are welcome, Dort! Do not lose faith. I know you struggle with how the Church has treated women and even how Mary's culture treated her.  Be not discouraged.  As a disciple of Christ, as a baptized Christian, you are sent to bring Good News to others, to proclaim Christ's resurrection, to open the Scriptures as much as any priest ordained by a bishop. You are asked to carry our your baptismal vocation without the public recognition given to a priest. Your vocation as a woman was  confirmed  by Jesus, who called women to spread the Good News and to proclaim the resurrection--in fact the first person to proclaim the resurrection was a woman."

"God does not will that you live out your call in the public eye but privately. Your vocation  to proclaim the Good News, to share your faith in Christ Jesus, to bring others to Christ--the call of every priest ordained by a bishop--was  given to you at your baptism.  Cherish your call, Dort, to do as Mary, the mother of Jesus, did,  that is  to bring Jesus to the world, and also to do as Mary Magdalene did, proclaim the Good News of Jesus' resurrection.  Proudly, carry out the role God has ordained for you as a woman. The baptismal call to proclaim your faith and to share the Good News is as real and as needed as the call a priest receives in his ordination by a bishop!"

"Thank you, Mom, for these words of wisdom!  You certainly brought Jesus to me by your works of faith and love and hope in Christ Jesus; and you brought me to Jesus! In every way as a mother you lived out the call you received at your baptism!   Thank you!"

"You are welcome, Dort! I love you!"

"I love you, too, Mom!"

St. John's Witness to Jesus, the Word Made Flesh

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John, the Evangelist, the one invited to Mount Tabor where Jesus' glory was revealed, the one who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper and who accompanied Jesus into the Garden of Gethsemane, the one who stood beneath the cross with Mary on Good Friday and to whom Jesus entrusted His Mother,  and the one who, seeing the burial cloths in the empty tomb truly believed that Jesus had risen and that death had no power over Him.

In today's liturgy, John addresses us in his first letter: "Beloved: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life--for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us--what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1: 1-4).

"What was from the beginning" when the world was made was THE WORD, the Son of God, the one who became the Incarnate God born of the Virgin's womb on Christmas day!  That second person of the Blessed Trinity is the one John had seen with his own eyes, is the one John had looked upon and had touched with his own hands.  John had seen THE ETERNAL WORD of God in the person of Jesus Christ. To this second person of the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnate God, John gives testimony and proclaims Him to us so that, with John, we, too, may have fellowship with the Father and with the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.

What a gift!  God wants fellowship with us!  He held nothing back so that we would have access to the Divine Word by our lives made holy by Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection.  John tells us  that he  and the other apostles proclaimed and gave witness to the WORD MADE FLESH "so [their] joy may be complete" (1 John 1: 4).

If you and I are looking for joy, we will experience such when we, too, give witness to the Lord and proclaim Him to the world of our day, when we, too,  are light in the darkness of the world, as Jesus was and is to this very day!

Strength for the Faith Journey

In today’s first reading, Acts 14: 19-28, Paul is stoned and dragged out of the city believing to be dead. The disciples of Jesus gather around him.  He gets up and leaves with Barnabas to go to Derbe and several other cities to proclaim the good news, strengthening other disciples, encourageing them to persevere in the faith.  This particular journey ends in Antioch where they are “commended for their work”   and where they, in turn,  “reported all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.”

Imagine going through the city/the village where you live sharing your faith in Jesus and suddenly being turned upon viciously, violently, literally having stones thrown at you or attacked verbally, words of hatred and rejection hurled at you.  Would you, accompanied by other believers, get up, maintain your peace, and move on to another place to continue the mission God entrusted to you?  Or would you withdraw, tell yourself that you do not have what it takes to do this work, that you have had enough, that the price  isn’t worth it, that you are not going to risk your  life; that, no way, are you going to make a fool of yourself and invite the wrath of your neighbor.

Notice that Paul does what he does, not alone, but with other disciples. It is with their support, that Paul is able to get up and move on.  At the end of this particular journey, Paul also seeks the support of fellow disciples. St. Luke , the author of Acts, tells us that Paul and Barnabas “spent no little time with the disciples.” 

In order to make progress in our faith journey and in proclaiming the Gospel either with words, or with our lives,  we too need support from other disciples, especially when we meet opposition from without or within. We also need to take time to report to others “all that God has done” and how God “opens the door of faith” for us in our work and daily living experiences. If I do not have that kind of support, I need to find it, seek it out, or make it happen by taking the initiative to form such a group.

Called to evangelize and be evangelized, to love and be loved, to nurture and be nurtured by friends

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Luke, the evangelist and a physician.  God calls persons from all walks in life to serve Him as priests, as men and women religious, as deacons, as married men and women and as single persons.  All of us, no matter what vocation in life we choose--and hopefully we seek God's will in the choices we make--are called to evangelize, to share our faith with others: parents with each other and with their children, single men and women with their co-workers, neices and nephews and with the children in their parishes as catechists,  as fellow worshippers and participants in parish programs; men and women religious through their ministries (healthcare, education, youth ministry, pastoral associates, catechists and other forms of services that address the needs of the poor and needy, the marginalized; that confront injustices perpetrated in the world of our day).

St. Luke was a friend of St. Paul, one who did not abandon him in his sufferings, including being imprisoned and put to death for the faith. Luke was at his side.  God also sends each of us friends to support us, encourage us, and give us strength to proclaim the message of salvation, to share our faith with others in a variety of ways, but especially by how we live our faith in the daily events of our day.

May we have the courage, the wisdom, the passionate love to fall in love with Jesus over and over again and share that love with those with whom we live and minister in Jesus' name.

Sunday Eucharistic celebration:

Today Christians throughout the world are worshipping in community and and receiving the Eucharist.  I am in a foreign country today. After Mass, the Sisters I am visiting greeted many of the parishioners. I watched or "hid" behind one of them I knew and who, at the time, was not mingling.  I could have continued to withdraw, like a small child hiding behind and clinging to the back of its mother's leg.  I could have continued to use the excuse "I don't know anyone" or "I am shy," and not, following the Eucharistic celebration, "broken bread" with anyone.  Finally, either moved by my discomfort or by the Spirit, I reached out and began to greet some of the parishioners.  It was only then that, like Jesus, I shared myself with others, as Jesus shared Himself with me in the sacrament.  Is it possible that the only way a sacrament is "consummated" is when I interact with another human being and not stay locked up in my own security or fears?  And is it possible that the Word of God that I had just heard and which I reflected upon earlier in meditative prayer only bears fruit when I share with others and that, without interaction with those with whom I live and work, the "seed" of the Word within me remains dormant.  Does my faith, then, not grow?

What's your experience of how you "consummate" your faith?

The value of community living

Yesterday I was engaged in three meetings, all of which make me proud to be an SSM: one with my local community, another with the two combined local communities here in NJ and another at the parish where another sister and I worship and serve on Sundays.  My local community met for renewal, at which we reflected upon one of the virtues of Mother Frances, namely that of prudence.  We were amazed at the way our Foundress practiced this virtue and the number of persons who gave testimony of this fact.  She was prudent in all of her dealings whether conducting community business with the laity or priests associated with the community or assuring that the values of religious life and community building were being respected by the sisters.  What an example to all of us. What also inspired me during this meeting was listening to each sister share the highlights of her summer experiences. Not only did the experiences touch me but so, too, did the respect given each sister.  The meeting of the combined local communities focused on the positive impact of the visit of our general superior with each member of the province. She, too, is a woman of great prudence  who also lives a deeply spiritual life.  We concluded that meeting with a resolve of how we here in NJ can continue to improve our ways of living out the charism of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother.   The two sisters with whom I live closed the day by attending an ecumenical prayer service at St. Matthew’s Parish in Randolph, NJ,  to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 and pray for those who lost their lives on that day and the survivors of that day who carry the burden of grief to this very day.